Suspicious Powder at NYT Corn Starch

Suspicious Powder at NYT Corn Starch

NEW YORK -- A suspicious powdery substance found Friday in an envelope sent to The New York Times likely is corn starch, the newspaper and police said.

Police were called after an employee in the mailroom opened a business-sized envelope containing a beige powder.

The Department of Environmental Protection, through field tests, preliminarily identified the substance as "an organic substance, probably corn starch," police spokesman Paul J. Browne said.

The envelope also contained an editorial about reports on secret government anti-terrorism programs with a red "X" through it, said Catherine Mathis, a Times spokeswoman.

The letter, handwritten to The New York Times, had no return address but had a Philadelphia postmark.

The employee, identified in a Times story as a 54-year-old Brooklyn man, put the envelope in a plastic bag and called police. He was examined at a hospital, but showed no symptoms or injuries, Mathis said.

The building's eighth floor _ which includes the mailroom and the Travel and Styles sections _ was evacuated and sealed off for about four and a half hours as the police hazardous materials unit conducted tests, Mathis said.

Anthrax-tainted letters were sent to numerous media outlets and offices in 2001, just weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks. Five people died, and since then, officials have been cautious when suspicious powders are detected.